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Editor’s note: This is the Tuesday, January 17, edition of the “Game Day with Kevin Modesti” newsletter. To receive the newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.
Good morning. The Lakers were in danger of suffering another late loss last night. They dodged that, but close games remain trouble. Our beat writer has an intriguing explanation.
In other news:
The Lakers led the Houston Rockets by two points with one minute to play at Crypto.com Arena and looked as if they were going right down to the wire against the NBA’s worst team before LeBron James (48 points) and Russell Westbrook (24) came through with a key basket and free throws to save a 140-132 victory.
Another last-second decision might have been too much to bear after the Lakers’ overtime loss to the Mavericks and last-second loss to the 76ers in the previous two games, the officiating at the end of the latter still a bitter topic last night.
Kyle Goon, who covers the Lakers beat for the Southern California News Group papers, has noted that the loss to the 76ers was symptomatic of bigger problems.
Kyle’s Week in Review items in the Purple and Bold newsletter (sign up here) and online are good sources of analysis of what’s going right and wrong for the Lakers, who are 20-24, 13th in the Western Conference.
Last week, he explained how pushing the pace was helping the Lakers win with smaller lineups since Anthony Davis’ foot injury.
Yesterday, he offered explanations for Sunday’s 113-112 loss to Philadelphia, which ended with Westbrook driving the left baseline and not even getting a shot up.
“Is a Westbrook isolation really the best play the Lakers could have run to win a game? Coach Darvin Ham endorsed the idea,” Goon wrote.
“Not everyone agreed,” he went on. “One person in the Lakers’ locker room told Southern California News Group that if anyone else had the ball besides James with a few seconds remaining, Ham should have called a timeout. It’s a good bet there were others who fell in that school of thought as well.”
Both James and Westbrook have subpar stats in “clutch” situations, and Goon shows why Ham’s description of Westbrook as “one of our best finishers at the rim” is inaccurate.
Last-second failures like the one against the Sixers are what you get when you have two stars struggling in the clutch and a rookie coach who won’t call timeout or consider other options.
“The Lakers have two main ball-handlers who consistently play together in tight games, both of whom are future Hall of Famers, both of whom have historically been clutch players (truly, look at a highlight reel of Westbrook’s MVP season clutch shots) and neither of whom are performing well,” Kyle writes.
“Then they have a first-year head coach, a former player who is going to defer to his historically great players in tight moments. Both James and Westbrook are best in transition, so Ham was probably right to give them a chance to score off a live ball rebound – but past that, a more experienced coach might have called a timeout to run a set play (and it’s worth noting that really worked back when Matt Ryan was on the team).”
Kyle sums up: The “inability to hold superstars accountable” has hurt the Lakers’ late-game performance.
Fixing that is easier said than done.
But maybe fixing that is easier now that Kyle has said it.
Get SCNG writers’ Lakers coverage online here, and follow Kyle Goon on Twitter here.
TODAY
- Clippers learned John Wall (abdominal injury) will be out at least two weeks as they host the 76ers (7 p.m., TNT). Clippers update.
- Ducks continue their trip at Philadelphia, whose recent revival includes a 4-1 win in Anaheim two weeks ago (4 p.m., BSSC).
NEXT QUESTION
Are you rooting for Tom Brady to keep playing next season at age 46? Share your thoughts by email (KModesti@scng.com) or on Twitter (@KevinModesti).
280 CHARACTERS
“Dang – USC (13-4) knocks off the No. 2 team in all the land the weekend after taking the now-No. 9 team to the absolute wire (again) and still can’t get in.” – Columnist Mirjam Swanson (@MirjamSwanson) tweeting after the Trojans’ women’s basketball team didn’t make the AP top 25 despite upsetting Stanford.
1,000 WORDS
Surrounded: UC Irvine guard Andre Henry is well defended by UC Santa Barbara players during the Anteaters’ first Big West loss of the season last night at Bren Events Center. Photo is by contributorPaul Rodriguez.
LET’S TALK
Thanks for reading the newsletter. Send suggestions, comments and questions by email at KModesti@scng.com and via Twitter @KevinModesti.
Editor’s note: Thanks for reading the “Game Day with Kevin Modesti” newsletter. To receive the newsletter in your inbox, sign up here.
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